Yankees: Aaron Boone would be open to MLB employing a mercy rule

Last weekend in The Bronx, Yankees’ skipper Aaron Boone had to do something that he’s had to do on two different occasions in the last six weeks. He had to call on a position player to pitch in order to save his bullpen in a game the Yankees were getting blown out.

On Friday, August 16, that position player would be Yankees first basemen Mike Ford, who would go on to pitch two innings of five-run baseball. He gave up back-to-back jacks to Greg Allen (3-run home-run) and Carlos Santana (Solo home-run) on route to an Indians’ 19-5 victory at Yankee Stadium. It was game to forget for the Yanks but a memorable experience for Ford who made his first MLB pitching appearance and first on the mound since his college days at Princeton University.

Aaron Boone really had no other option but to turn to Ford but he was still very concerned about the rookie’s throwing arm and how it could’ve resulted in injury. Boone also suggested an alternative idea to bringing in position players in a blowout game, and that would be Major League Baseball adding a mercy rule to the game. Per the Washington Post:

“I think there would be a lot of benefit to that,” Boone said Friday after the loss. “You would probably eliminate a lot of the unwritten rules of people running or swinging at 3-0 pitches in the ‘wrong scores.’ Just be like, if you get to this point after seven innings or whatever, there might be some merit to that worth exploring.”

A mercy rule would entail that a team can win a game in less than nine innings of play, by outscoring their opponent by a certain degree or in a certain amount of time. They are well known in many amateur baseball leagues, including little league, high school leagues, as well as college baseball. Many are familiar with the mercy rule being 15 runs after three innings, 10 runs after five innings, and 8 runs after six innings.

Boone and his team have been on the winning side of these blowouts more often than not, but given the number of blowouts in the game over the past few seasons, it wouldn’t be the worst idea to implement the rule in order to save pitching staffs and quicken the pace of play.

On October 8, 2018, Aaron Boone had to turn to Austin Romine, his back-up catcher, in order to get the final three outs of the ball game against the Boston Red Sox, on route to a 16-1 loss in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series at Yankee Stadium.

On August 10, 2019, the Houston Astros defeated the Baltimore Orioles 23-2 in a lopsided affair, that saw Outfielder, Stevie Wilkerson, on the mound for the Orioles for the fourth time in 2019. On July 23, 2019, Aaron Boone had to call on Austin Romine for an inning at Fenway Park on route to a 19-3 loss.

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These are two examples of many situations in which teams would be thankful for a mercy rule, as Baltimore had to turn to an outfielder for the fourth time during the course of 2019, as well as that fact that everyone in the ballpark knew there was no chance at any sort of comeback.

It currently seems unlikely that Rob Manfred would implement any sort of mercy rule in the near future, though, it would help pace of play, in which MLB has been trying to improve for many years, as well as save many managers from getting massive headaches in the final innings, as they watch their position players get smoked by major league hitters.

Only time will tell whether or not Rob Manfred takes this idea under consideration one day, but until that time, Aaron Boone just hopes he won’t be forced to use Ford or Romine in any more games moving forward.